Anthropology the key
CATHEDRAL NEWSLETTER - 23 November 2023
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
Friends in Christ, in so many ways, anthropology is the key issue of Christian thinking for our era (e.g. as Carl Trueman argues).
'Anthropology' is your understanding of what it is to be human. And in our generations, it's therefore closely tied up to your identity. It's also conects to our understanding of being embodied... What does integrity look like, feel like for me and my body?
Anthropology ties in to so many of the major shifts and divisions of our times:
human sexuality, gender identity, and "What is a woman?";
racial and indigenous rights and discrimination;
abortion and euthanasia (noting that VAD = "voluntary assisted dying" commences as a legal option for eligible people in NSW from this coming Tuesday 28 Nov.)
Today I simply want to share a couple of basic biblical observations that shape how I think about these matters.
The first is the basic Christian conviction that God is the sovereign Creator of all that is. Since he made all life, God knows best how it runs. So his will, that we find revealed in the Scriptures, ought to be decisive for human anthropology. A little like the engineer who designed the car gives you a manufacturer's manual, so God has given us the Bible. Its storyline is full of excellent, authoritative and sufficient guidance for salvation and godly living. And yes, I believe, for anthropology.
The second conviction is that all humans, male and female, are made in the image of God and are therefore precious to him (Genesis 1:27, 9:5-6). And since, the Fall, all humans sin and fall short of God's glory (Romans 3:22-23). Therefore it is dangerous and wrong to look down on others; to consider yourself 'good' and others 'bad'!
Christians believe we all stand equally in need of God's grace, and the best place to find it is at the foot of the cross of Christ.
This leads to my third comment for today... Recently in another context, I noted that Colossians 3:11 says:
Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. [NIV]
To this list, Galatians 3:28 adds “male and female”. These texts note that in Christ’s church, just as in society, there are many identifiable people groups: Jews and Gentiles (i.e. all the other non-Jewish nations). The large category of ‘Gentile’ included dominatnt Greek speakers within the Roman empire, but also barbarian and Scythian - non-Greek speakers - often marginalised. Some of the believers from these different people groups were slaves; others were free.
The Christian gospel does not mean that all distinctions of ethnicity, language, education, gender, or economic situation are somehow erased. Some of these differences have continuing cultural or even legal significance on earth; others perhaps even deserve a particular respect this side of the new creation.
And the final book of the Bible, Revelation, rejoices that many people of many nations and tribes and languages will be gathered around the throne of God, together with his Son, the slain but risen Lamb, whose sacrifice of blood purchased so many people for God.
However, the Christian gospel certainly says, without equivocation, that no particular group had an advantage of access to salvation or to membership in Christ’s church. God’s amazing grace was equally available to all, simply through faith in Christ Jesus, as Lord and Saviour.
Since all humans are all made in God's image, since all humans are fallen in sin, and since salvation is equally available to all, through trusting Jesus, it makes sense to me that our anthropology ought to emphasise the identity markers we have in common even more than the things that mark us more individually as different.
So I do not want to relate to someone simply through the single identity marker of their sexual orientation or their race, let alone their political identity. I do not deny that people's self-ID is important to them. But first of all, they are all human, and, I believe, made in the image of God.
They are all someone's child (even if, rarely, they do not know whose); they are all either male or female, often a brother or sister; almost all workers (whether paid or voluntary); and they have various hobbies and interests and gift and abilities and relationbships.
And Christianly, I believe, they are all called to repent of their sins and to consider Christ's call on their life as Saviour and Lord!
I could go on. But in a time of strong polarisation and rhetorical aggression, I think this is an important note to strike. We have much in common, not just much that divides us, although our beliefs and actions often cause the latter!
But we Christians do not wish for the damage or destruction of those with whom we disagree. As we follow Christ, we love even our enemies, we pray for the peace of our world. In these ways, we refuse to stoke polarisation or social division.
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With that in mind, I do turn, sadly, to the latest developments in the Church of England, where its General Synod has voted (with a tiny majority of clergy and laity, but strong support of bishops) to encourage its House of Bishops to continue their work of implementation of 'Prayers of Love and Faith', including the development of ‘stand alone’ services for the blessing of people in same-sex marriages.
The most helpful review I have read is from Rebecca McLaughlin, who explains why this vote breaks her heart, as someone raised in the Church of England, trained at a UK Anglican theological college (alongside her Cambridge PhD), and who has experienced same-sex attraction for as long as she can remember.
She reviews whether the Bible's teaching is clear and good. She notes some Christians have been hateful towards those who identify as gay or lesbian. But then, she explores what she calls the greatest love story ever told... Commenting on his words in Matthew 19:4-6, she writes:
Jesus emphasizes that marriage is male-female, quoting not only from Genesis 2:24, when the first man and woman became one flesh, but also from Genesis 1:27, when God made humans male and female. This is Jesus’s definition of marriage: a one-flesh union between one man and one woman. But even though Jesus never married in his life on earth, he stands right at the center of Scripture’s vision for what marriage is about.
In the Old Testament, prophet after prophet pictures God as a loving, faithful husband—and Israel as his often-straying wife. This cosmic marriage is continually on the rocks because God’s people keep cheating on him by worshiping idols. It’s hard to see how the relationship will ultimately work, until—at long last—Jesus comes and calls himself the Bridegroom (Matt. 9:15). John the Baptist pictures Jesus this way too (John 3:29). Jesus is the Bridegroom come to claim God’s people for himself...
This means Christian marriage isn’t primarily about two people making one another happy. It isn’t even primarily about making babies—though that’s an important element of God’s design. It’s about Jesus and his people. And his eternal, death-defying, sacrificial love for us reaches across the deepest difference: though like us in his humanity, he’s unlike us in his divinity. Male-female marriage is likewise a love across deep difference: the physical difference of male and female bodies. Like Jesus and his people, marriage isn’t a relationship of interchangeable parties. It’s a love across the most profound diversity...
This is the marriage none of us can live without. This is the love none of us can miss. This is the most magnificent love story into which we’re all invited—male or female, married or single, regardless of our patterns of attraction—if only we’ll turn and trust in Jesus. And this is the happily-ever-after we’ll miss if we persist in unrepentant sin.
At the risk, now familiar to those who read my articles, of going on too long, our own Cathedral Canon, Dr Mark Thompson, has written of his profound grief at what happened in the Church of England, and his disappointment in the Archbishop of Canterbury. But here is his positive response...
When we stop talking about Jesus, we stop talking about the gospel. When we stop loving his word, we stop loving his people and the world over which he wept. So let’s not fall into that trap, even as we respond in tears to what has been done by the leadership (so-called) of the Church of England. Let’s get back to the core truths and hold on to them even more tightly. Our world is lost because we have sought to determine for ourselves what is right and what is wrong without reference to God, let alone in humble obedience to him. The only hope for every man and woman is the Saviour who came among us to exhaust the judgment we deserve and triumph over every consequence of our sin (John 3:16). In his generosity he calls on all to “come to me” and to “find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:28–30). But it is only those who do come to him in faith, abandoning the empty, disappointing allegiances of their life without him, and taking hold of the rescue only he can provide, who will be saved (Rom. 10:9, 13). Most wonderful of all, he promised “whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37).
Warmly in Christ,
Sandy Grant
Dean of Sydney